Martina McBride
Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.
Martina McBride
Martina Mariea Schiff
July 29, 1966
Sharon, Kansas, U.S.
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- record producer
- Vocals
- piano
- tambourine
- harmonica
1988–present
McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989. She signed to RCA Records in 1991, and made her debut the following year as a neo-traditionalist country singer with the single, "The Time Has Come".[2] Over time, she developed a pop-styled crossover sound, similar to Shania Twain and Faith Hill, and had a string of major hit singles on the Billboard country chart and occasionally on the adult contemporary chart. Five of these singles went to No. 1 on the country chart between 1995 and 2001, and one peaked at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart in 2003.
McBride has fourteen studio albums, two greatest hits compilations, one "live" album, as well as two additional compilation albums. Eight of her studio albums and two of her compilations have an RIAA Gold certification, or higher. In the U.S., she has sold over 14 million albums. In addition, McBride has won the Country Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year award four times (tied with Reba McEntire for the third-most wins) and the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist" award three times.[3][4] She is also a 14-time Grammy Award nominee.[5]
Early life[edit]
McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, on July 29, 1966.[6] She has two brothers, Martin and Steve, who play in her concert band as of 2017, and a sister, Gina.[7][8]
McBride's parents, Daryl and Jeanne Schiff, owned a dairy farm. Daryl, who was also a cabinetry shop owner, exposed her to country music at a young age. Listening to country music helped her acquire a love for singing. After school, she sang for hours along to the records of such popular artists as Reba McEntire, Linda Ronstadt, Juice Newton, Jeanne Pruett, Connie Smith, and Patsy Cline.[9] Around the age of eight or nine, Martina began singing with a band her father fronted, "The Schiffters." As she grew older her role in the band progressively increased, from simply singing, to also playing keyboard with them. She enjoyed performing in her early years.[9]
McBride began performing with a local rock band, The Penetrators, in Wichita instead.[9] Then, in 1987, Schiff gathered a group of musicians called Lotus and started looking for rehearsal space; she began renting space from studio engineer John McBride. In 1988, the two married.[9][10]
After marrying, the couple moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989 with the hope of beginning a career in country music. John McBride joined Garth Brooks's sound crew and later became his concert production manager. She occasionally joined her husband on the road and helped sell Garth Brooks souvenirs. In 1990, impressed by her enthusiastic spirit, Brooks offered her the position of his opening act provided she could obtain a recording contract.[10] During this time, while her husband was working with country artists Charlie Daniels and Ricky Van Shelton, he also helped produce her demo tape, which helped her gain a recording contract with RCA Nashville Records in 1991.[2]
Music career[edit]
1992–1995: The Time Has Come and The Way That I Am[edit]
McBride released her debut studio album by RCA Records in 1992, titled The Time Has Come. It was produced by Paul Worley and Ed Seay. This album's title track made it to number 23 on the country music charts, while the next two singles both failed to make the Top 40.[11] Unlike her later country pop-influenced albums, The Time Has Come featured honky tonk and country folk influences.[2]
The Way That I Am was McBride's second album. Its first two singles both brought her into the country top ten: "My Baby Loves Me," the album's de facto title song, peaked at number two, and "Life No. 9" peaked at number six. The former was previously a Top 10 hit in Canada for Patricia Conroy. The third single, "Independence Day", was prevented from reaching the Top 10 through the oppositions of many radio programmers, who objected to the song's subject of a mother fighting back against abuse by burning the family home to the ground.[12] "Independence Day" won Video of the Year and Song of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards.[11][13] It also earned the song's composer, Gretchen Peters, a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. The song also gave McBride a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. McBride performed the song at the 1995 Grammys ceremony. The fourth and fifth singles from The Way That I Am were less successful: "Heart Trouble" peaked at number 21, and "Where I Used to Have a Heart" fell short of the Top 40.[11] McBride later criticized these single choices, saying that she felt "Strangers" would have been a better followup, as that song was more popular with fans and later appeared on her first greatest-hits album.[14] The Way That I Am was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"My Baby Loves Me (Just The Way That I Am)," as produced and released, proved to have a sing-along quality that led McBride to sing it that way in her subsequent concerts.
1995–1999: Wild Angels and Evolution[edit]
McBride's third album, Wild Angels, was released in 1995. It accounted for another Top 5 hit in its lead single "Safe in the Arms of Love", which had previously been recorded by both Wild Choir and Baillie & the Boys, and was concurrently released in Canada by Michelle Wright at the time of McBride's version. The album's title track went on to become McBride's first No. 1 single on the country charts in early 1996.[11] The album's third, fourth, and fifth singles, "Phones Are Ringin' All Over Town", "Swingin' Doors", and "Cry on the Shoulder of the Road" were less successful, having reached the lower regions of the Top 40.
In early 1997, after "Cry on the Shoulder of the Road" peaked, McBride released two duets. "Still Holding On", a duet with Clint Black which was the lead-off single to her fourth album Evolution and Black's album Nothin' but the Taillights,[11] and "Valentine", a collaboration with pop pianist Jim Brickman which appeared on his album Picture This.[15] She also sang duet vocals on "Chances Are" with Bob Seger, featured on the soundtrack of the 1998 motion picture Hope Floats.
She had her second number one on the country charts with "A Broken Wing", the second single from her Evolution album, in late 1997. Evolution went on to produce four more Top 10 hits at country radio: a re-release of "Valentine", "Happy Girl", "Wrong Again" (which also went to number one), and "Whatever You Say".[11] Towards the end of 1998, the album was certified double platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling two million units. In addition, she also won the Country Music Association Awards' "Female Vocalist of the Year" award in 1999 and also performed for President Bill Clinton during the same time.
Also in 1998, McBride released her first Christmas album titled White Christmas, which featured a rendition of "O Holy Night" that first charted in 1997 and continued to re-enter the charts until 2001.[11] She also sang a guest vocal on Jason Sellers' mid-1998 single "This Small Divide".
Personal life[edit]
In 1988, Martina Schiff, as she was known up to that time, married sound engineer John McBride, taking his family name as her stage name. The couple has three daughters: Delaney Katharine (born December 22, 1994), Emma Justine (born March 29, 1998),[42] and Ava Rose Kathleen (born June 20, 2005).[43] After becoming a mother, the singer reduced her touring schedule so that her daughters could have a normal upbringing. Joe Galante said this was "an enormous choice in terms of money", but McBride had made it very clear that she wanted to be present in her daughters' lives.[44]
